The Lister Auto-Truck was a small monowheel tractor built for moving light loads around factories, railway yards and similar sites. They were built by R A Lister and Company of Dursley, Gloucestershire, well known for their range of small stationary engines The Auto-Truck was one of several monowheel tractors to appear in the 1920s and '30s, with the availability of small, reliable petrol engines, as developed for motorcycles and the stationary engines for which Lister were already known. These were tricycle vehicles, with the single leading wheel used for both drive and steering. Their simple construction carried most of the mechanism on this wheel as a single unit, the chassis with the trailing wheels being little more than a trailer for balance. Simplicity was a key feature. The engines were single-cylinder and air-cooled. Ignition was by magneto, rather than requiring a battery and electrical system. One of these designs was produced in the 1920s by George Grist of the Auto Mower Co., Norton St Philip, Somerset. The engine was a JAP 600 cc four-stroke air-cooled sidevalve, a typical small engine of the time. The Auto Mower Co. were Lister agents and when Lister heard of this 'Auto-Truck' they bought one for use in their own factory. It was used to carry heavy engine castings from the foundry to the machine shop. Lister customers saw them and there was such interest in wanting to buy them that Lister negotiated with Auto Mower to build them under licence. Although Lister were already well known for their small petrol stationary engines, these were heavy cast-iron engines with water hopper cooling and unsuitable for vehicle use. Lister remained with the JAP engine for the Auto-Truck. The Auto-Truck was designed for use in factories or other places with smooth surfaces of concrete or tarmac. This allowed the use of small solid-tyred wheels with only simple suspension, making the vehicle simple, cheap and lightweight. They had little ability on soft surfaces though and could even topple over if driven carelessly across slopes. Their design was a compromise between the top-heavy nature of the tall engine grouping above its wheel and a well thought-out chassis for stability. The bearing between them was a large diameter ring roller bearing, mounted at the lowest part of the chassis. This gave rigidity and stability, even after long wear. A ring of rolled channel girder was attached to the engine group and rollers on the chassis carried the load upon this. On early Auto-Trucks this bearing is set very low, in line with the chassis members, and is covered by thin steel plates. The front panel of the engine cover is distinctive with large ventilation holes and a Lister signature cut through it. Strangely this panel is made of thick cast iron, providing substantial weight high on the engine and only adding to its top heaviness. To improve visibility of moving vehicles in noisy factories, this panel was often painted white, the rest of the vehicle being Lister's usual brunswick green. The driver was seated on a Brooks bicycle saddle, which in recognition of the lack of vehicle suspension, was carried on the end of a cantilevered bar that acted as a leaf spring. A wide handlebar on the engine group was used for steering. A squeeze bar the width of this handlebar engaged the clutch. Controls included a hand throttle, a gear lever with two forward and one reverse gears, and a large handbrake lever. The engine unit rotated freely for a full 360° rotation. When used in reverse, the Auto-Truck could either be driven from the saddle, looking backwards over the driver's shoulder; or they could dismount, swivel the engine unit around and control it as a pedestrian-controlled truck from behind. Under the engine cover were two equal diameter tanks, a fuel tank for petrol and a shorter oil tank. Engine and chain-drive lubrication used a total-loss oil system, controlled by a small pump and needle valve. Info Ref: Lister Auto-Truck - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lister_Auto-TruckHistoric - Industrial monowheel tractor for moving light loads around factories, railway yards and similar sites.The Lister Auto-Truck - small monowheel tractor Made of steel with three wheels. Powered by a J.A.P single cylinder petrol motor which is Hand Cranked to start.Lister puffing billy, lister, lister auto truck, monowheel tractor

Col. Harley Tarrant was an astute businessman and a part-time soldier. He was born at Clunes in 1860 and as a young man worked with an engineering firm in Sydney. He later joined the Board of Works in Melbourne. and later entered the early car manufacturing and retailing trade. In 1905 Harley Tarrant built the first car to be built and sold in Australia. For a time he was a surveyor and worked in Surrey Hills but motoring became his prime interest. In the early 1890s he set up a workshop in what was then Post Office Place, Melbourne. He built stationary engines which ran on kerosene and in the first years of the twentieth century, with partner W Howard Lewis, built the first petrol driven car in Australia. This photo is of his sixth car and was taken after the finish of the 1st Sydney to Melbourne Dunlop Reliability Trial, which Tarrant won. Harley Tarrant produced cars between 1901 and 1907 at the Tarrant Motor and Engineering Company in Queen's Bridge Street, South Melbourne. The first car had a rear-mounted two-horse power Benz engine. Two-cylinder models were later produced followed by 4-cylinder models. The only Tarrant car in existence in 1984 was owned by Harley Tarrant's grandsons, Kenneth and Peter Holmes of Melbourne. The 1906 Tarrant car featured on an Australia Post stamp in 1984. It was one of a series of 5 stamps featuring Australian veteran and vintage cars.Black and white photo of a car without a hood in the driver's seat of which is a man with cap, driving dust coat and goggles, identified as Harley Tarrant. Beside him is a young girl in a large frilly; she is identified as Doreen Tarrant, his daughter. Another man with cap and goggles is talking to him and a gentleman in a bowler hat looks on. There is a women and 2 children in the background in front of a large brick wall decorated in two coloured bricks. cars, inventions, dunlop reliability trial, tarrant motor and engineering company, mr harley tarrant, miss doreen tarrant, mrs doreen holmes, col harley tarrant

Sectioned steam pump so that the pump workings can be seen. Inscriptions & Markings: Tangye Birmingham, This steam pump was presented by the colonial gas Assn Ltd (brass plaque) The Colonial Gas Association was originally formed in London on 2 February 1888, as The Australasian Gas Association Limited. The primary objective of the company was to provide investment capital to help finance the construction and management of gasworks being established by the London engineering firm John Coates & Co in metropolitan cities and regional towns throughout Australia and New Zealand. By 1890, the Australasian Gas Association had acquired gasworks at Benalla, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warragul, Maldon and Seymour, and had constructed a large gasworks at Box Hill to supply the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. In 1893, the company's name was changed to the Colonial Gas Association Limited. During the 1890s, the company acquired regional gasworks in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, followed by its first gasworks in New South Wales, in 1911. In 1914, the company consolidated its metropolitan supply area by purchasing the Oakleigh and Footscray gasworks. Further expansion occurred in the 1920s with the purchase of established gasworks at Williamstown, Frankston and Dandenong and the acquisition of ten further gas undertakings in Queensland and New South Wales, making the firm the fifth largest gas producer in Australia. info from The Colonial Gas Association Limited, circa 1893 https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1553322 Originally formed by the five Tangye brothers from Cornwall as James Tangye & Brothers in 1857, this Birmingham engineering firm grew to become one of the largest suppliers of jacks, pumps, steam and oil engines, hydraulic presses, gas producers and machine tools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The successful sideways launching of I.K. Brunel's 'Great Eastern' from the mud of the Thames in 1857 using Tangyes hydraulic jacks gave the firm much needed publicity and new orders flowed in. To finance expansion, George Price provided additional capital and the company name became Tangye Brothers & Price in 1859. A new factory known as the 'Cornwall Works' was built in Clement Street, Birmingham. In 1872, the firm became Tangye Brothers and in about 1879- 1880 began production of internal combustion stationary engines based on Horace Robinson's patents, later using the Otto four-stroke design for its Soho range of gas engines. Examples of the Soho engine were exhibited by the firm at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. Petrol and oil engines were made from the 1890s onward, and by 1910 had developed into the Model B, BR and AA series engines. Tangyes supplied custom-built pumps and presses for particular applications, becoming a major exporter of engineering equipment. In 1884, Tangye Brothers opened a custom-built branch office, showroom and warehouse in Melbourne at Cornwall House in Collins Street West, advertising the full range of engineering products. These lantern slides images are taken from Tangyes product catalogues from the 1910-1925 period and are believed to have been used as sales promotional aids in Australia by the Tangye Brothers. info from https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/4670 Historic - Industrial Steam Operated Water Pump built by Tangye Bros and used by the Colonial Gas Company - Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaSectioned steam pump so that the pump workings can be seen. Tangye Birmingham, This steam pump was presented by the colonial gas Assn Ltd (brass plaque)puffing billy, steam pump, sectioned, tangye bros

c.1962 photo of original Victorian Railways photo Believed to be 'Overland' crash at Serviceton on 7 Sept 1951. Four locomotives were involved. The Melbourne-bound 'Overland' ran head-on into the stationary Adelaide-bound 'Overland'. Three of the locomotives were written off. One person died - one of the firemen.Digital TIFF file Scan of 35mm Ilford FP3 black and white transparencysteam engine, train crash, victorian railways

The badge recovered from the Schomberg wreck is believed to depict one of the first steam engines. The engine's design by Charles Tayleur & Co. was to be produced for the Great Western Railway in England. The first nineteen of these locomotives were ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway including six 2-2-2 Charles Tayleur locomotives. They were built by Charles Tayleur and Company, which later the Vulcan Foundry. The locomotives were unsuccessful and were rapidly supplemented by the Star Class locomotives ordered by Daniel Gooch once he had been appointed as the Locomotive Engineer. As built, they comprised two groups of three, the first group, was delivered in 1837. This locomotive was the first to run on the Great Western Railway when it was tested on 28 December 1837 from its shed at West Drayton. It was withdrawn in 1843 but was rebuilt as a 2-2-2T tank locomotive and returned to service in 1846, running in this form until 1868. It survived for two more years at Reading as a stationary boiler. It is named after the workshops where it was built, which themselves were named after the Roman god of fire. (Although a supposition, it is possible that the owner was a passenger on the ill-fated Schomberg and that they worked either for the Great Western Railway or the Vulcan Foundry that made the engine in the 1830s.) Wreck of the Schomberg: Schomberg was a large three-masted full-ship rigged wooden ship built in 1855 by Alexander Hall and Co in Aberdeen, Scotland for James Baines' famous Black Ball Line at £43,103. The vessel was 288 feet (88 meters) in length, with a beam of 45 feet (14 meters), a depth of 29.5 feet (8.99 meters) of 2,284 tons. The mainmast was 210 feet (64 meters) high and she carried 3.3 acres of sail. The vessel was constructed with three skins. One planked fore and aft, and two diagonally planked, fastened together with screw-threaded trunnels (wooden rails). The Schomberg is one of only three clipper wrecks in Victorian waters that operated the England to Australia run. While the other two, Empress of the Sea and Lightning, were built by the famous American shipbuilder, Donald Mac Kay. Schomberg was an attempt to build a faster ship than Mac Kay and a vessel fast enough to break the sailing record to Australia. The Schomberg sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool on 6 October 1855, under the command of Captain James Forbes, on its maiden voyage to Australia with a general cargo, jewellery, spirits, machinery, and 2,000 tons of iron rails and equipment intended to build the Melbourne to Geelong Railway and a bridge over the Yarra from Melbourne to Hawthorn. She also carried a cow for fresh milk, pens for fowls and pigs, plus 90,000 gallons of water for washing and drinking. She also carried 17,000 letters and 31,800 newspapers. There were approximately 473 passengers and a crew of 105. It was hoped that Schomberg would make Melbourne in sixty days, setting a record for the voyage, but light winds at the equator dashed those expectations. The ship sighted Moonlight Head in southwest Victoria on Christmas Day but through a deadly combination of wind, currents, and unmarked sand spits, the vessel gently ran aground on 26 December 1855 on a spit that juts into Newfield Bay, just east of Curdies Inlet, and the present town of Peterborough. Fortunately, the SS Queen was nearby and managed to save all passengers and crew. The steamers Keera and Maitland were dispatched to salvage the passenger's baggage and the more valuable cargo. Other salvage attempts were made, but deteriorating weather made the work impossible, and within two weeks the Schomberg's hull was broken up and the vessel abandoned. The wrecking of the Schomberg caused quite a public stir, particularly in light of the fact the vessel was supposed to be, the most perfect clipper ship ever built. Captain Forbes was charged in the Supreme Court under suspicion that he was playing cards with two female passengers below decks when his ship ran aground. Despite a protest meeting, two inquiries, and the court proceedings, he was found not guilty and cleared of all charges. In 1975, divers from Flagstaff Hill, including Peter Ronald, found an ornate communion set at the wreck. The set comprised a jug, two chalices, a plate, and a lid. The lid did not fit any of the other objects and in 1978 a piece of the lid broke off, revealing a glint of gold. As museum staff carefully examined the lid and removed marine growth, they found a diamond ring, which is currently on display in the Great Circle Gallery at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum that also displays ship fittings and equipment, and personal effects. Most of the artefacts were salvaged from the wreck by Peter Ronald, former director of Flagstaff Hill.The Schomberg has historical significance as one of the first luxurious ships built to bring emigrants to Australia to cash in on the gold rush era. And is included on the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR S612). The collection of Schomberg artefacts held at Flagstaff Hill Museum is primarily significant because of the relationship between these recovered items having a high potential to interpret the story of the Schomberg and its foundering during a storm. The shipwreck is of additional historical significance for representing aspects of Victoria’s shipping history and for its association with the first passenger ship, which was designed not only to be the fastest and most luxurious of its day but foundered on its maiden voyage to Australia.Gold coloured brass badge depicting an 1840's steam engine or locomotive with the figure of a fireman standing on the back. Smoke is coming from the smokestack. The reverse has three holes, possible where a mounting pin or fastener was attached. The badge was recovered from the wreck of the Schomberg.warrnambool, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, schomberg, shipwrecked-artefact, clipper ship, black ball line, 1855 shipwreck, captain forbes, ss queen, badge, charles tayleur, great western railway, vulcan foundry, isambard kingdom brunel, locomoive, brooch

Ordered by Langwill Bros., & Davies Ltd Melbourne Used for saw milling, dam constructions and log haulingFoden Traction Engine This engine is a compound traction engine built by Foden Ltd of Sandbach England in 1914 – builders number 4525. This was ordered by Langwill Bros and Davies Ltd of Melbourne and was used by Mr F Orr on his farm at Bullarto South Victoria. On the farm it was used for many agricultural purposes and was used at times as a stationary engine to run a wooden thrashing machine. The unit was last used on the farm in 1947 and put aside on the farm with a “museum” of other old agricultural tractors and machinery. Mr Orr gave us the engine as an exhibit for the Menzies Creek Museum of Puffing Billy in the 1960s. At that stage he was an elderly gentleman of 97 years and maintained a great interest in his farm which had been in his family’s hands for three generations at that stage. His grandfather had cut the farm from the bush. The traction engine in its youth was used to go around other farms in the district and went as far away as the Wimmera and Mallee farms thrashing crops of wheat, barley and oats. It towed the wooden thrashing machine behind it on its trips to these farms on hire to the farmers. Foden Compound Traction Engine Built by Foden Ltd., Sandback, England in 1914 to the order of Langwill Bros., & Davies Ltd., Melbourne, it was used on a farm for sawmilling, dam constructions and log hauling. Donated by F. Orr of Bullarto South, Victoria. Foden Compound Traction Engine - made of Steel (Painted)Foden foden, traction engine, steam, puffing billy

Train Instrument transportation Box used for the transporting of Flaman Speed Indicator and Recorder to the repair workshops The Flaman Speed Indicator and Recorder was a device patented in 1901 by Nicolas Charles Eugène Flaman of France for indicating the current speed of a vehicle (for example a railway locomotive) and recording it on a paper tape that could be unrolled and examined at the end of a run to provide evidence of the speeds attained on the journey. Design features: The paper tape recording was driven directly by the wheels of the locomotive, with the paper spool moving at a fixed rate per kilometre travelled. Three graphs were recorded, the first being time elapsed (with the trace moving vertically if the train was stationary), the second being a speed curve. and the third recording the driver's attentiveness to signals ("Vigilance") by marking one tick above a line when the driver depressed a button, and another below the line when the engine went over the signal ramp. Data recorded: Read together, it was possible to determine exactly what speed the locomotive had been travelling at any point in time or distance. As well as allowing study of locomotive performance, it also allowed greater scrutiny of the observance of the driver of speed restrictions along the line and attentiveness to signals. It was practice on some railways such as the Victorian Railways in Australia for the driver to sign the speed chart prior to departure.Historic - Victorian Railways - Train Instrument transportation Box for the transporting of Flaman Speed Indicator and Recorder to the repair workshopsLarge wooden box with wrought iron fittings, painted black with white lettering on side panels. RETURN TO / TOOL ROOM / NEWPORTpuffing billy, train instrument transportation box, victorian railways, flaman speed indicator and recorder

Used by Ted Beddiscomb of Gormandale near Traralgon, brother in law of donor. Ted was a dairy farmer and used the motor for about 10 years to pump water. It is possible it was on his farm for some years prior to this. Tom did some reconditioning and preservation on the unit.3 HP 4 cycle motor primarily used to belt drive other equipment such as pumps and machinery on a farm etc. Petrol driven, magneto ignition and water cooled.Bronze plate 'The Rosebery Engine C25387 RPM 1000 HP3 manufacturer Westinghouse Rosebery Ltd Sydney. 3C-103 on water jacket; 3D-1 on engine housing; 3C-15 on flywheel.rural industry, farm machinery, machinery, engines - internal combustion

The train smash occurred in Sunbury between the Station Street level rail crossing and Sunbury Station on February 6th 1952 at around 10pm. The goods train was being pulled by the green locomotive, which was used to take the Jubilee train throughout Victoria in 1951, to acknowledge 125 of European settlement in Victoria, ran into the back of another stationary goods train on the rail line. The guard, A.C Read, in the stationary goods train was killed. P J Mcwhirter, the guard in the other train was injured. The tree lined street in the background is Horne Street.This smash was one of a number that have happened along the Sunbury rail line and in the vicinity of Sunbury Station over the years.A black and white photograph with a white border of a train smash which wrecked a steam engine and carriages. Workmen are on the tracks surveying the wreckage. A rail crossing is in the background.jubilee train, train crashes, station street, sunbury railway station, a c read, p j mcwhirter

The K class steam engines were often used on Victoria's regional rail lines taking passengers and goods across the state. A coloured photograph of a stationary steam train on railway tracks with the driver looking out his cabin window and a man walking alongside the train. steam engines